Five things to do in Carlow to make the most of the sunshine this weekend
According to recent forecasts, it seems that the glorious sunshine and hot weather is here to stay for at least another few days.
With temperatures expected to reach up to 20 degrees this weekend in Carlow, you may want to start making plans to make the most of the sunshine….while we still have it.
With that it mind, here are five outdoor things to do in Carlow to make the most of this gorgeous weather.
Altamont Gardens
With summer finally here and the sun making an appearance or two, Altamont Gardens is the perfect place for you and your family to get outdoors this weekend.
Located near Tullow in Co Carlow, Altamont is known as one of the most beautiful gardens in Ireland.
Take your family on a riverside walk or visit the walled garden or an old arboretum.
There is also a café onsite in the form of quaint tea garden.
Altamont Gardens, cultivated since the 1750s and gifted to the nation by Corona North are in the care of the Office of Public Works (OPW) and looked after by Head Gardener, Paul Whyte and the OPW team at Altamont.
Often referred to as 'the jewel in Ireland's gardening crown', both the gardens and the old house it surrounds are steeped in Irish history.
It is thought that Altamont was originally the site of a convent, but that hasn't been proved yet. However, the house that exists today was built on the remains of an older dwelling dating back to at least the 16th century.
ADVERTISEMENT
The gardens were originally created by the St. George and Doyne families in the mid-1700s. During this time the house was also transformed by the two families.
In the 1850s, the house and gardens came under the new ownership of the Borrors family who added a library wing to the house and in 1871 they built a butler's pantry.
The famous lake situated in Altamont Gardens was dug out by hand in order to offer employment to the local population after the Irish Famine.
Huntington Castle and Gardens
Huntington Castle and Gardens in the historical village of Clonegal in Co Carlow is open daily to the public from 11am until 5pm.
The castle has been in the Robertson family home since 1625.
Visitors can choose to take a tour of the castle or explore the stunning gardens, or of course do both.
Tickets are available for castle tours daily at 1pm, 2pm, 3pm and 4pm, while tickets for the gardens, which are open daily from 11am to 5pm, are also available to purchase on-site.
You can also enjoy a coffee and treat from local artisanal bakers in the seventeenth century tea room.
Ducketts Grove
If you are looking to get outside and enjoy some fresh air while also exploring the history, ruins and gardens of an old Carlow estate, then the nineteenth century Ducketts Grove House and Estate is perfect.
The supposedly haunted Ducketts Grove has been a part of the Carlow landscape for over 300 years since it was abandoned by its former owners, the Duckett family.
The ruins and walled gardens are open and free to visit and with its surviving towers and turrets, Ducketts Grove is one of the most photogenic historic buildings in Ireland.
There is also a café onsite if you get hungry or want some refreshments during your visit.
Delta Sensory Gardens
Located in Carlow Town, the Delta Sensory Gardens, described by many as an 'oasis of peace and tranquillity' are award winning gardens set on 2.5 acres.
The Delta Sensory Gardens are a series of interconnected gardens designed to appeal to your senses.
From beautiful limestone sculptures, a game of snakes a ladders, water features and much more, the Delta Sensory Gardens are the perfect way to spend a sunny day.
Café Thyme is also onsite if you need to refuel with some tasty treats.
The Nine Stones Viewing Point
If you want to spend your weekend out in nature and enjoying the beautiful countryside Carlow has to offer, The Nine Stones Viewing Point is definitely worth a visit.
Located at the top of Mount Leinster, The Nine Stones Viewing Point is one of Carlow's hidden gems and offers one of the most scenic views in the county.
On a clear day, eight counties (Carlow, Laois, Kildare, Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford, Kilkenny and Tipperary) can be seen from this spot.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
6 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Sailor Pamela Lee: 'I've crossed the Atlantic over 11 times but the first was the turning point'
Pamela Lee is no stranger to navigating the world's toughest oceans. One of Ireland's most accomplished offshore sailors, she has crossed the Atlantic more than 11 times and is now preparing for the 2026 Route du Rhum, a 3,500-nautical-mile solo transatlantic race. With new backing from Danish shipping company DFDS, her #empowHer campaign supports diversity, opportunity and sustainability in the world of ocean racing. Here, Pamela shares the places that shaped her journey and the landscapes that still call her back. My favourite childhood holiday memory I grew up in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, and most of my free time as a child was spent outdoors with my family. We'd go on campervan-type holidays all around Ireland, which usually involved some kind of boat — kayaks, canoes, dinghies — and lots of wild camping. I remember only one holiday we ever went on that didn't involve sailing, boats, or being at the sea. Pamela Lee sailing with friends. It was always campervan-type holidays: tents, wild toilets, no kitchens. I think growing up doing that made me totally fine with discomfort. Offshore racing is very rough and ready. There's no bathroom, no kitchen, you share everything for days. People say, 'Isn't it uncomfortable?' And I never really think twice. Those holidays definitely helped shape that mindset. My most memorable trip After finishing my master's degree, I had the chance to do my first Atlantic crossing. It wasn't a race, just delivering a boat from Europe to the Caribbean with some mates. It had always seemed like this great adventure, and it really was. Being in the middle of the ocean for the first time, I just loved it. That trip left a mark on me. It planted a seed. I didn't go pro right after, but that flame stayed lit. I've since crossed the Atlantic over 11 times, all different experiences, but that first one was the turning point. Most surprising destination Lee describes Brittany's Atlantic coast as the mecca of offshore sailing. West France, Brittany's Atlantic coast, has surprised me the most. I never imagined myself living there. We came for the sailing, but it's become home. The beaches are incredible, the surf and kiting spots are amazing, and hidden camping gems are all over. It's really the mecca of offshore sailing, especially the short-handed or solo racing I do. It's like if you wanted to be a professional ice hockey player, you'd go to Canada — this is where you come to play at the top. The Celtic Breton culture is so like Irish culture, too. It's funny to be surprised by a place that's right across the water from Ireland. My favourite cities Pamela Lee: "One of my favourites has to be Essaouira in Morocco. I've been a few times." One of my favourites has to be Essaouira in Morocco. I've been a few times. It's a gorgeous fishing town, smaller than Marrakech, a bit more chilled, but still has those amazing markets and rich culture. There are huge fishing boats and chaotic seafood markets with cats everywhere. You can explore the city, then go surfing just outside. It's got that mix I love. I loved La Paz in Bolivia too. I went backpacking there after college, and it stayed with me. It's way up in the mountains, completely landlocked, so it felt totally different to the life I usually live by the sea. The culture is so rich, and everything about being there felt like stepping into another world. Even getting there was an adventure. It felt earned. And it was so rewarding. Most beautiful country Pamela Lee: "I had planned to spend three months there with a friend who works in safaris, but covid cut the trip short after ten days. Even in that short time, it made a huge impression." Kenya. I had planned to spend three months there with a friend who works in safaris, but covid cut the trip short after ten days. Even in that short time, it made a huge impression. The coastline was incredible — I went scuba diving and the coral was in better shape than the Caribbean. Inland, I got just a taste of the wildlife and nature, and it's something I really want to go back and explore properly. The people and culture were just as beautiful as the landscape. My favourite thing to do while travelling I love spending time with local people. Even when I'm travelling solo, I try to connect through a local guide or instructor for kite surfing, surfing, or even mountain treks. It's a way of experiencing the place that goes beyond just sightseeing. You learn so much more when someone local shares their world with you. My bucket list trip Pamela Lee said her dream trip would be to sail through the Arctic or Antarctic, not in a race, just slowly taking it all in. I have two. The first is to race around the world, that's a professional goal I'm working toward. But the second is more of a dream trip: to sail through the Arctic or Antarctic, not in a race, just slowly taking it all in. I already have the skills, and it would be a privilege to use them that way. It would be incredible to float through still water, surrounded by ice and quiet. Read More Seema Pankhania: The aftermath of an accident in Colombia gave me so much faith in people and travel
Irish Post
13 hours ago
- Irish Post
Birmingham's Balti, blinders and Irish backbone
MY eyes started to bulge, beads of sweat began to drip from my brow — I realised that my nascent journey through Birmingham's cultural chicane was about to hit the wall when I started to taste a bowl of fiery Hot and Sour Soup ( Suan La Tang ) at a lively Chinatown restaurant. Sichuan peppercorns seemed to be gouging dents in my tongue deeper than West Midlands potholes. And the accompanying fried rice, with its semi-volcanic red chilli paste, was failing to douse the flames. Luckily, I was saved soon after when a very welcome Guinness helped to soothe the pain at the Queen's Arms, a friendly and traditional Art Nouveau pub in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. Another pint followed and, quite soon, normal service was (almost) restored, Well, at least I was able to talk again. Such risks are at the heart of any trip into a metropolis which is a melting pot (literally) of so many of the world's cultures and cuisines, from Irish and Caribbean to Chinese and an abundance of South Asian. The previous day, I had voyaged into the heart of the city, along with my partner and photographer Sue Mountjoy, on a hired narrowboat in which we had tucked into our own version of the Birmingham Balti, cooked previously and frozen at home. James with the Wren tied up in the heart of Birmingham Our onboard meal was based on a recipe from Shababs, one of the city's original Balti houses that refined the legendary Pakistani curry, named after its wok-shaped cooking pan, the Balti, meaning bucket in Hindi and created locally in the 1970s. It was a delightful mix of spices, but our cooking skills hardly matched those of the local aficionados who, despite so much competition from burgers, desserts, pizzas and gastro pubs, can still be found across a city which served 20,000 Balti meals a week in the boom decades between 1990 and 2010. Of course, our four-day journey along the Worcester and Birmingham Canal was as much a relaxing wander through idyllic spring countryside as an exploration of the history of the waterway itself and the countless Irish labourers who sweated, bled and died carving its 22-mile route from Alvechurch Marina to Birmingham's historic Gas Street Basin. During the golden age of canals – a relatively short period, from 1760 to 1800 – it is not known how many Irishmen flocked to regions like the West Midlands, the epicentre of the network with 160 miles of canals (more waterways than Venice, it's claimed), most of which still survive, having come through the eras of the railways, roads and now enjoying a halcyon period of leisure use. Many of these men hid their identities and remain unrecorded by history, suspicious of often aggressive authorities and locals who accused them of taking their jobs by undercutting their already meagre wages. James tries out his onboard Balti curry Yet they came in their thousands, many to handle the harvests of the great English and Scottish estates, before switching to the canals for the better pay for the punishing work of digging 20 tons of earth a day, living amid the disease and violence of nearby shanty towns, where beer and brawling were the key distractions. It was hard not to think of their sacrifices when we faced our first and only real challenge, the seemingly endless and gloomy depths of the Wast Hill Tunnel, which is over a mile and a half long and took us over 35 minutes to pass through with just our boat headlight as our guide. It took the navvies three brutally hard and very dangerous years to dig by hand and build the brickwork (from 1794-97). I wondered how many had died there and had been the legendary 'heavy diggers' of Connemara or the 'tunnel tigers' from Donegal – both had a reputation as hard workers and, even today, have renowned skills in construction, particularly subterranean work. Wast Hill proved passable safely with steel-eyed concentration and, once through, gave me a light-headed sense of achievement when that light emerged and we savoured the warmth and birdsong at the end of its shiveringly dank depths. Even so, our cruise – with not a single ancient lock to negotiate - was ideal for a beginner and for boaters who prefer a gentle cruise through a tapestry of rolling Worcestershire countryside dotted with ancient waterside cottages and elegant grey herons who stared at us intently from the towpaths, hopeful that our propellor would expose a doomed fish or two for lunch. The Wren moored in central Birmingham Our first mooring was at Bournville, the UK's 'Chocolate Town' and home to the all-embracing Cadbury business started in 1824 by Quaker John just four miles away in Birmingham's Bull Street - now American-owned and one of the world's biggest confectionery brands. We had a fascinating wander round the elegant and green Arts and Crafts model village, which the Cadbury dynasty built to provide workers with better living conditions than the cramped Victorian city. But it was in among the giggling children at the Cadbury World exhibition centre (over 500,000 visitors each year) that we saw how clever marketing and continuous change made us both obsessed as children with Dairy Milk! Next day, a small boy Ollie (3) and his great grandmother stopped to chat and look over our 49-foot steel monster, between train spotting on the adjoining Cross-City rail line into Birmingham. 'How fast does it go?' he asked. 'Not very, I'm afraid,' I replied honestly, to his clear disappointment. Yet, as we cast off with the help of our neighbouring boat owner and with advice about the big city's attractions from a young man living in his boat opposite, we appreciated that life at 4-miles-an-hour is a wellbeing antidote to today's busy world. Even as busy Birmingham crept up on us, through the fields, suburban warehouses, and graffiti-emblazoned walls of Selly Oak, Edgbaston and eventually through heart of the city's waterways, the 230-year-old canal nerve centre, Gas Street Basin, and our final mooring berth, Brindley Place, once grimy and choked with industry but now home to countless lively bars, restaurants and such attractions as the National Sea Life Centre, Legoland and the Symphony Hall. For two nights, despite being surrounded by such full-on nightlife, our mooring proved oddly peaceful, with several friendly passing dog walkers, pram-pushers and cuddling couples stopping to chat whenever we stepped out. And by foot and buses, we immersed ourselves in the many cultures of a city which has been home to the Irish for over two centuries, with over 15,000 Irish immigrations arriving by the mid 19th century, attracted by work on the canals, railways and construction industry. The Wren sails through the lengthy Wast Hill Tunnel Our trips took us to some of the city's iconic centres, including Digbeth, the spiritual home of the Irish, and the fascinating Back-to-Backs Museum, where the National Trust spent £3 million preserving three 19th century houses that show the disease, landlord cruelty and squalor those families endured. Interestingly, our guide informed us that due to the high water table locally, the poorest families had not been forced to live in the dark and windowless house cellars as so many arriving Irish had had to endure in 19th century Liverpool. After our return to Alvechurch Marina, we handed back the 'Wren' and drove to Dudley to spend the day at the remarkable Black Country Living Museum, whose grim canal yard featured in the earliest episodes of television's long-running Birmingham drama, Peaky Blinders. The dramatized Blinders on TV are a violent group of organised criminals with Irish roots (led by Tommy Shelby played by Cillian Murphy) but the truth of the fearsome late 19th and early 20th century Birmingham 'slogging' gangs is more complex. Some, grew out of the anti-Irish Catholic violence stirred up by roving preachers who encouraged widespread looting and destruction of the impoverished Irish homes around Park Street in the 1860s. For protection, many youngsters signed up to what became an early youth cult of the day. Today, the Blinders are long gone. And, despite Birmingham's recent headlines over bin strikes and council finance chaos, we enjoyed a city with great pubs and live trad music and learned how their modern-day Irish descendants are now the poets, writers, teachers, builders and musicians that have helped construct the kaleidoscopic culture of a city that can certainly float your Balti boat. FACTFILE For canal trip details visit or call 0344 984 0322 ABC Boat Hire or call 0330 333 0590 Hire prices for the 'Wren,' for example, start at £699 for a short break (three or four nights), £999 for a week. Boats range from 32ft to 70ft and can accommodate from two up to 12 people. For more information about the canal network, visit See More: Balti, Birmingham, Irish, Travel
The Irish Sun
15 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Major blow as ANOTHER popular Ryanair flight to top destination scrapped as busy season kicks off
RYANAIR has scrapped flights to another popular European destination over "sky-high" charges. The 1 Ryanair has stopped flying to a popular Dutch airport Credit: Getty Starting October 26, Ryanair will cancel every route it operates from They have said Maastricht is one of the most pricey airports in Europe, and the charges could harm air travel connections in the Netherlands. Back in 2021, Maastricht introduced an environmental tax that charges Ryanair with nearly €30 for each passenger flying out. And this tax has been in place in other major READ MORE IN TRAVEL This has led Ryanair to also cut the number of flights - including those to Alicante, Bari, Girona, Porto, and Zadar which wipes out around 150,000 seats each year. Jason McGuinness, Ryanair's Chief Commercial Officer said the taxes at Maastricht have skyrocketed by 275 percent in just four years. He said: 'Ryanair continues to grow traffic - this year from 200m to 206m - by offering unbeatable low fares to customers across Europe at airports that have low access costs. "Maastricht's sky-high costs are damaging its connectivity. Most read in News Travel 'It is evidenced by the Airport's failure to recover its traffic post-Covid, lagging far behind the rest of Europe at just 50 per cent of pre-Covid traffic in 2024." Earlier this year, the budget airline trimmed summer flights in 'It's very important' - Ryanair's 'baggage sizers' warning to Irish passengers ahead of busy Easter break amid €75 fine Similarly, the airline pulled all flights to and from Aalborg after Denmark introduced a €6.70 passenger fee, which airlines are required to cover. Ryanair called the tax 'harmful' and said it forced them to scrap flights to major This move means Ryanair is losing around 1.7 million seats and closing several routes in Denmark. And back in September 2023, they pulled 17 routes for the winter season, blaming a 45 per cent hike in passenger charges at Dublin Airport. They also moved their special eco-friendly 'Gamechanger' planes to other airports that offer better deals. Then in September 2024, Ryanair said it would cut another 14 routes due to a passenger cap at Some of the routes cut included places like Asturias, Castellón, and Santiago in Spain, plus airports in Denmark, the UK, France, Italy, Austria, Slovakia, Germany, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland. ROUTES CUT And just this week, Ryanair decided to suspend its flights to Tel Aviv due to ongoing security concerns and instability in the region. The airline had briefly resumed operations in the past month, but recent security issues due to the war in CEO Michael O'Leary stated that safety remains the top priority and that conditions in the area no longer support regular flight operations. He said: "I think we're running out of patience too with Israel… flights to and from Tel Aviv. "If they're going to keep being disrupted by these security disruptions, frankly, we'd be better off sending those aircraft somewhere else in Europe."
